Nigerian Man Sues Google, GoDaddy, Seeks $150m Over Contract Breach

A Nigerian, Mr Chianugo Peter, has filed a lawsuit in the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking $150 million in compensation from Google and GoDaddy.com.

The lawsuit revolves around the alleged shutdown of his YouTube Audio domain name after eight years of promotional and marketing efforts.

Peter, represented by his lawyer, Emmanuel Ekpenyong, named GoDaddy.Com LLC and Google LLC as the first and second defendants in the suit, filed on April 14 with case number FHC/ABJ/CS/238/2023.

The plaintiff is requesting the court to declare that he registered the YouTube Audio business name, initiated trademark registration for the business name’s logo, and obtained the YouTubeAudio.com domain name from GoDaddy in good faith for legitimate business purposes and to attract users to his application.

He also seeks a declaration that since GoDaddy and Google encouraged him to use the YouTubeAudio.com domain name for the past eight years, “they are estopped from claiming that the domain name infringes any of their trademarks or denying the plaintiff the use of the YouTubeAudio.com domain name.”

The statement of claim further reveals that the plaintiff expects compensation for the loss of the YouTubeAudio.com brand and goodwill that he accrued over eight years of promotional and marketing efforts, from July 2, 2015, to December 7, 2022.

Peter is also requesting an order for the defendants to pay him $50 million for his promotional and marketing works on the YouTube Audio business name and YouTubeAudio.com domain name over the same period.

Additionally, he seeks an order for the defendants to pay him $100 million for the loss of anticipated profits associated with the brand equity and goodwill of YouTube Audio and the YouTubeAudio.com domain name.

According to Peter’s statement, he owned YouTube Audio, also known as YTAudio, which was accessible through platforms such as Google Play Store and Apple Store in Nigeria.

In 2015, he acquired the YouTubeAudio.com and YoutubeAudio.ca domain names from GoDaddy without any indication that they infringed upon the YouTube trademark or any other Google products.

Peter claims that GoDaddy confirmed the availability of the domain names and did not inform him that they were similar to YouTube or any Google trademarks.

He further asserts that from 2015 to April 2022, when he conducted extensive promotional and marketing activities with the domain name, Google did not dispute the ownership or claim that it was similar to the YouTube trademark. He even paid Google to host the YouTube Audio.com application on the Google Play Store in 2021 without any objection.

The plaintiff states that YouTube Audio was duly registered as a business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on February 22, 2016, under the laws of Nigeria, and consistently filed tax returns with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Peter contends that after eight years of dedicated promotional and marketing efforts on the YouTubeAudio.com domain name to make it attractive to users and launch the application, the defendants suddenly claimed that it infringed the YouTube trademark.

He alleges that on April 29, 2022, Google’s solicitor contacted him expressing concerns about YouTube Audio’s similarities with YouTube and suggested a settlement involving changing the business name and domain names to “YTAudio.”

Peter agreed to a settlement only if he received compensation, but instead of negotiating, GoDaddy shut down his domain, claiming it infringed the YouTube trademark. This action followed an arbitration proceeding under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Based on the arbitration forum’s decision, GoDaddy transferred the YouTubeAudio.com domain name to Google on December 7, 2022, contrary to the assurances previously given to Peter.

During the court session regarding the report of service of originating processes on the defendants, only the plaintiff’s lawyer, Ekpenyong, and counsel to Google, Mark Mordi (SAN), were present.

The trial judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, adjourned the matter until October 11, 2023, for mention.